Margaret Thatcher
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The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher LG OM PC FRS Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Elections: 1979, 1983, 1987 In office 4 May 1979 – 28 November 1990 Monarch Elizabeth II Deputy William Whitelaw Geoffrey Howe Preceded by James Callaghan Succeeded by John Major Leader of the Opposition In office 11 February 1975 – 4 May 1979 Monarch Elizabeth II Prime Minister Harold Wilson James Callaghan Preceded by Edward Heath Succeeded by James Callaghan Leader of the Conservative Party In office 11 February 1975 – 28 November 1990 Preceded by Edward Heath Succeeded by John Major Secretary of State for Education and Science In office 20 June 1970 – 4 March 1974 Prime Minister Edward Heath Preceded by Edward Short Succeeded by Reginald Prentice Member of Parliament for Finchley In office 8 October 1959 – 9 April 1992 Preceded by John Crowder Succeeded by Hartley Booth Personal details Born Margaret Hilda Roberts 13 October 1925 Grantham, England Died 8 April 2013 (aged 87) London, England Political party Conservative Spouse(s) Denis Thatcher (m. 1951–2003, his death) Children Carol Thatcher Mark Thatcher Alma mater Somerville College, Oxford Inns of Court Profession Chemist Lawyer Religion Church of England Methodist (1925–1951) Signature Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG OM PC FRS (née Roberts, 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. A Soviet journalist called her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As Prime Minister, she implemented policies that have come to be known as Thatcherism. Originally a research chemist before becoming a barrister, Thatcher was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her Secretary of State for Education and Science in his 1970 government. In 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become Leader of the Opposition and became the first woman to lead a major political party in the United Kingdom. She became Prime Minister after winning the 1979 general election. Upon moving into 10 Downing Street, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession.1 Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised deregulation (particularly of the financial sector), flexible labour markets, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term in 1987. During this period her support for a Community Charge (popularly referred to as "poll tax") was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990, after Michael Heseltine launched a challenge to her leadership. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire, which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. On 8 April 2013, Thatcher died of a stroke in London at the age of 87. Contents hide 1 Early life and education 2 Early political career 2.1 Member of Parliament (1959–1970) 2.2 Education Secretary and Cabinet Minister (1970–1974) 2.3 Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) 3 Prime Minister (1979–1990) 3.1 Domestic affairs 3.2 Foreign affairs 3.3 Challenges to leadership and resignation 4 Later life (1990–2013) 4.1 Post-Commons 4.2 Husband's death 4.3 Final years 5 Death 6 Legacy 6.1 Political legacy 6.2 Honours 6.3 Cultural depictions 7 Styles and titles 8 Arms 9 References 9.1 Further reading 10 External links Early life and education Margaret Thatcher's birthplace, in Grantham Commemorative plaque on the building in which Thatcher was born Thatcher was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in Grantham, Lincolnshire, on 13 October 1925. Her father was Alfred Roberts, originally from Northamptonshire, and her mother was Beatrice Ethel (née Stephenson) from Lincolnshire.2 She spent her childhood in Grantham, where her father owned two grocery shops.3 She and her older sister Muriel (1921-2004) were raised in the flat above the larger of the two, located near the railway line.3 Her father was active in local politics and the Methodist church, serving as an alderman and a local preacher,4 and brought up his daughter as a strict Wesleyan Methodist5 attending the Finkin Street Methodist Church. He came from a Liberal family but stood—as was then customary in local government—as an Independent. He was Mayor of Grantham in 1945–46 and lost his position as alderman in 1952 after the Labour Party won its first majority on Grantham Council in 1950.4 Margaret Roberts attended Huntingtower Road Primary School and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School.6 Her school reports showed hard work and continual improvement; her extracurricular activities included the piano, field hockey, poetry recitals, swimming and walking.78 She was head girl in 1942–43.9 In her upper sixth year she applied for a scholarship to study chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, but she was initially rejected and was offered a place only after another candidate withdrew.1011 She arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree; in her final year she specialised in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin.1213 Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.1415 She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944),16 which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.17 After graduating, Roberts moved to Colchester in Essex to work as a research chemist for BX Plastics.18 In 1948, she applied for a job at ICI, but was rejected after the personnel department assessed her as "headstrong, obstinate and dangerously self-opinionated".19 She joined the local Conservative Association and attended the party conference at Llandudno in 1948, as a representative of the University Graduate Conservative Association.20 One of her Oxford friends was also a friend of the Chair of the Dartford Conservative Association in Kent, who were looking for candidates.20 Officials of the association were so impressed by her that they asked her to apply, even though she was not on the Conservative party's approved list: she was selected in January 1951 and added to the approved list post ante.21 At a dinner following her formal adoption as Conservative candidate for Dartford in February 1951 she met Denis Thatcher, a successful and wealthy divorced businessman, who drove her to her Essex train.2021 In preparation for the election Roberts moved to Dartford, where she supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream.2022 Early political career In the 1950 and 1951 general elections, she was the Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of Dartford, where she attracted media attention as the youngest and the only female candidate.2324 She lost both times to Norman Dodds, but reduced the Labour majority by 6,000, and then a further 1,000.23 During the campaigns, she was supported by her parents and by Denis Thatcher, whom she married in December 1951.2325 Denis funded his wife's studies for the bar;26 she qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation.27 That same year her twins, Carol and Mark, were born.28 Member of Parliament (1959–1970) Thatcher was not a candidate in the 1955 general election as it came fairly soon after the birth of her children. Later that year, she was narrowly defeated when she sought selection as the candidate for the Orpington by-election, 1955.28 Afterwards, she began looking for a Conservative safe seat and was selected as the candidate for Finchley in April 1958 (narrowly beating Ian Montagu Fraser). She was elected as MP for the seat after a hard campaign in the 1959 election.29 Her maiden speech was in support of her private member's bill (Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act 1960), requiring local authorities to hold their council meetings in public.30 In 1961 she went against the Conservative Party's official position by voting for the restoration of birching as a judicial corporal punishment.31 She regarded Finchley's Jewish residents as "her people" and became a founding member of the Anglo-Israel Friendship League of Finchley as well as a member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.32 She also believed Israel had to trade land for peace, and condemned Israel's 1981 bombing of Osirak as "a grave breach of international law".32 In October 1961 Thatcher was promoted to the front bench as Parliamentary Undersecretary at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance in Harold Macmillan's administration.33 After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election she became spokeswoman on Housing and Land, in which position she advocated her party's policy of allowing tenants to buy their council houses.34 She moved to the Shadow Treasury team in 1966 and, as Treasury spokeswoman, opposed Labour's mandatory price and income controls, arguing that they would produce effects contrary to those intended and distort the economy.34 At the Conservative Party Conference of 1966 she criticised the high-tax policies of the Labour Government as being steps "not only towards Socialism, but towards Communism".34 She argued that lower taxes served as an incentive to hard work.34 Thatcher was one of the few Conservative MPs to support Leo Abse's Bill to decriminalise male homosexuality.35 She voted in favour of David Steel's bill to legalise abortion,3637 as well as a ban on hare coursing.38 She supported the retention of capital punishment39 and voted against the relaxation of divorce laws.4041 In 1967, she was selected by the United States Embassy in London to take part in the International Visitor Leadership Program (then called the Foreign Leader Program), a professional exchange programme that gave her the opportunity to spend about six weeks visiting various US cities and political figures as well as institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.42 Later that year Thatcher joined the Shadow Cabinet, where she was appointed Fuel and Power spokesman by opposition leader Edward Heath.43 Shortly before the 1970 general election, she was promoted to Shadow Transport spokesman and later to Education.44 Education Secretary and Cabinet Minister (1970–1974) The Conservative party under Edward Heath won the 1970 general election, and Thatcher was subsequently appointed to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Education and Science. During her first months in office she attracted public attention as a result of the administration's attempts to cut spending. She gave priority to academic needs in schools.45 She imposed public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged seven to eleven.46 She held that few children would suffer if schools were charged for milk, but she agreed to provide younger children with a third of a pint daily, for nutritional purposes.46 Cabinet papers later revealed that she opposed the policy but had been forced into it by the Treasury.47 Her decision provoked a storm of protest from Labour and the press.48 leading to the moniker "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher".4649 She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and would later write in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson the experience. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit."4850 Thatcher's term of office was marked by proposals for more local education authorities to close grammar schools and to adopt comprehensive secondary education. Although she was committed to a tiered secondary modern-grammar school system of education and was determined to preserve grammar schools,45 during her tenure as Education Secretary she turned down only 326 of 3,612 proposals for schools to become comprehensives; the proportion of pupils attending comprehensive schools consequently rose from 32 per cent to 62 per cent.51 Leader of the Opposition (1975–1979) Margaret Thatcher, Leader of the Opposition, 18 September 1975 The Heath government continued to experience difficulties with oil embargoes and union demands for wage increases in 1973 and lost the February 1974 general election.48 Labour formed a minority government and went on to win a narrow majority in the October 1974 general election. Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party looked increasingly in doubt. Thatcher was not initially the obvious replacement, but she eventually became the main challenger, promising a fresh start.52 Her main support came from the Conservative 1922 Committee.52 She defeated Heath on the first ballot and he resigned the leadership.53 In the second ballot she defeated Heath's preferred successor, William Whitelaw, and became party leader and Leader of the Opposition on 11 February 1975;54 she appointed Whitelaw as her deputy. Heath remained disenchanted with Thatcher to the end of his life, for what he and many of his supporters perceived as her disloyalty in standing against him.55 Thatcher began to attend lunches regularly at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a think tank founded by the poultry magnate Antony Fisher, a disciple of Friedrich von Hayek; she had been visiting the IEA and reading its publications since the early 1960s. There she was influenced by the ideas of Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, and she became the face of the ideological movement opposing the welfare state. Keynesian economics, they believed, was weakening Britain. The institute's pamphlets proposed less government, lower taxes, and more freedom for business and consumers.56 The television critic Clive James, writing in The Observer during the voting for the leadership, compared her voice of 1973 to a cat sliding down a blackboard.2 Thatcher had already begun to work on her presentation on the advice of Gordon Reece, a former television producer. By chance Reece met the actor Laurence Olivier, who arranged lessons with the National Theatre's voice coach.5758 Thatcher succeeded in completely suppressing her Lincolnshire dialect except when under stress, notably after provocation from Denis Healey in the House of Commons in April 1983, when she accused the Labour front bench of being frit.5960 On 19 January 1976 Thatcher made a speech in Kensington Town Hall in which she made a scathing attack on the Soviet Union: The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.61 In response, the Soviet Defence Ministry newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) called her the "Iron Lady,"61 a sobriquet she gladly adopted. In mid-1978, the economy began to improve and opinion polls showed Labour in the lead, with a general election being expected later that year and a Labour win a serious possibility. Prime Minister James Callaghan surprised many by announcing on 7 September that there would be no general election that year and he would wait until 1979 before going to the polls. Thatcher reacted to this by branding the Labour government as "chickens", and Liberal Party leader David Steel joined in, criticising Labour for "running scared".62 The Labour government then faced fresh public unease about the direction of the country and a damaging series of strikes during the winter of 1978–79, dubbed the "Winter of Discontent". The Conservatives attacked the Labour government's unemployment record, using advertising with the slogan Labour Isn't Working. A general election was called after James Callaghan's government lost a motion of no confidence in early 1979. The Conservatives won a 44-seat majority in the House of Commons, and Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female Prime Minister. Prime Minister (1979–1990) Main article: Premiership of Margaret Thatcher Thatcher's Cabinet meets with Reagan's Cabinet at the White House, 1981 Thatcher became Prime Minister on 4 May 1979. Arriving at 10 Downing Street, she said, in a paraphrase of the "Prayer of Saint Francis": Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.63 Domestic affairs Thatcher was Leader of the Opposition and Prime Minister at a time of increased racial tension in Britain. Commenting on the local elections of May 1977, The Economist noted "The Tory tide swamped the smaller parties. That specifically includes the National Front, which suffered a clear decline from last year".6465 Her standing in the polls rose by 11 percent after a January 1978 interview for World in Action in which she said "the British character has done so much for democracy, for law and done so much throughout the world that if there is any fear that it might be swamped people are going to react and be rather hostile to those coming in."; and "in many ways minorities add to the richness and variety of this country. The moment the minority threatens to become a big one, people get frightened."6667 In the 1979 general election, the Conservatives attracted voters from the National Front, whose support almost collapsed.6869 In a meeting in July 1979 with the Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington and Home Secretary William Whitelaw she objected to the number of Asian immigrants,70 in the context of limiting the number of Vietnamese boat people allowed to settle in the UK to fewer than 10,000. As Prime Minister, Thatcher met weekly with Queen Elizabeth II to discuss government business, and their relationship came under close scrutiny.7172 In July 1986, The Sunday Times reported claims attributed to the Queen's advisers of a "rift" between Buckingham Palace and Downing Street "over a wide range of domestic and international issues".7374 The Palace issued an official denial, heading off speculation about a possible constitutional crisis.74 After Thatcher's retirement a senior Palace source again dismissed as "nonsense" the "stereotyped idea" that she had not got along with the Queen, or that they had fallen out over Thatcherite policies.75 Thatcher later wrote: "I always found the Queen's attitude towards the work of the Government absolutely correct ... stories of clashes between 'two powerful women' were just too good not to make up."76 In August 1989, Thatcher queried her government's response to the Taylor Report, writing a hand-written comment on a Downing Street briefing note: "The broad thrust is devastating criticism of the police. Is that for us to welcome? Surely we welcome the thoroughness of the report and its recommendations?"77 During her time in office, Thatcher practised great frugality in her official residence, including insisting on paying for her own ironing-board.78 Economy and taxation Thatcher's economic policy was influenced by monetarist thinking and economists such as Milton Friedman and Alan Walters.79 Together with Chancellor of the Exchequer Geoffrey Howe, she lowered direct taxes on income and increased indirect taxes.80 She increased interest rates to slow the growth of the money supply and thereby lower inflation,79 introduced cash limits on public spending, and reduced expenditure on social services such as education and housing.80 Her cuts in higher education spending resulted in her being the first Oxford-educated post-war Prime Minister not to be awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Oxford, after a 738 to 319 vote of the governing assembly and a student petition.81 Her new centrally funded City Technology Colleges did not enjoy much success, and the Funding Agency for Schools was set up to control expenditure by opening and closing schools; the Social Market Foundation, a centre-left think tank, described it as having "an extraordinary range of dictatorial powers".82 GDP and public spending by functional classification % change in real terms 1979/80 to 1989/9083 GDP +23.3 Total government spending +12.9 Law and order +53.3 Employment and training +33.3 Health +31.8 Social security +31.8 Transport −5.8 Trade and industry −38.2 Housing −67.0 Defence −3.384 Some Heathite Conservatives in the Cabinet, the so-called "wets", expressed doubt over Thatcher's policies.85 The 1981 riots in England resulted in the British media discussing the need for a policy U-turn. At the 1980 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher addressed the issue directly, with a speech written by the playwright Ronald Millar86 that included the lines: "You turn if you want to. The lady's not for turning!"85 Thatcher's job approval rating fell to 23 per cent by December 1980, lower than recorded for any previous Prime Minister.87 As the recession of the early 1980s deepened she increased taxes,88 despite concerns expressed in a statement signed by 364 leading economists issued towards the end of March 1981.89 By 1982 the UK began to experience signs of economic recovery;90 inflation was down to 8.6 per cent from a high of 18 per cent, but unemployment was over 3 million for the first time since the 1930s.91 By 1983 overall economic growth was stronger and inflation and mortgage rates were at their lowest levels since 1970, although manufacturing output had dropped by 30 per cent since 197892 and unemployment remained high, peaking at 3.3 million in 1984.93 By 1987, unemployment was falling, the economy was stable and strong, and inflation was low. Opinion polls showed a comfortable Conservative lead, and local council election results had also been successful, prompting Thatcher to call a general election for 11 June that year, despite the deadline for an election still being 12 months away. The election saw Thatcher re-elected for a third successive term.94 Throughout the 1980s revenue from the 90 per cent tax on North Sea oil extraction was used as a short-term funding source to balance the economy and pay the costs of reform.95 Thatcher reformed local government taxes by replacing domestic rates—a tax based on the nominal rental value of a home—with the Community Charge (or poll tax) in which the same amount was charged to each adult resident.96 The new tax was introduced in Scotland in 1989 and in England and Wales the following year,97 and proved to be among the most unpopular policies of her premiership.96 Public disquiet culminated in a 70,000 to 200,000-strong 98 demonstration in London on 31 March 1990; the demonstration around Trafalgar Square deteriorated into the Poll Tax Riots, leaving 113 people injured and 340 under arrest.99 The Community Charge was abolished by her successor, John Major.99 Industrial relations Thatcher was committed to reducing the power of the trade unions, whose leadership she accused of undermining parliamentary democracy and economic performance through strike action.100 Several unions launched strikes in response to legislation introduced to curb their power, but resistance eventually collapsed.101 Only 39% of union members voted for Labour in the 1983 general election.102 According to the BBC, Thatcher "managed to destroy the power of the trade unions for almost a generation".103 The miners' strike was the biggest confrontation between the unions and the Thatcher government. In March 1984 the National Coal Board (NCB) proposed to close 20 of the 174 state-owned mines and cut 20,000 jobs out of 187,000.104105106 Two-thirds of the country's miners, led by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) under Arthur Scargill, downed tools in protest.104107108 Scargill had refused to hold a ballot on the strike,109 having previously lost three ballots on a national strike (January 1982, October 1982, March 1983).110 This led to the strike being declared illegal.111112 Thatcher refused to meet the union's demands and compared the miners' dispute to the Falklands conflict two years earlier, declaring in a speech in 1984: "We had to fight the enemy without in the Falklands. We always have to be aware of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty."113 After a year out on strike, in March 1985, the NUM leadership conceded without a deal. The cost to the economy was estimated to be at least £1.5 billion, and the strike was blamed for much of the pound's fall against the US dollar.114 The government closed 25 unprofitable coal mines in 1985, and by 1992 a total of 97 had been closed;106 those that remained were privatised in 1994.115 The eventual closure of 150 coal mines, not all of which were losing money, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and devastated entire communities.106116 Miners had helped bring down the Heath government, and Thatcher was determined to succeed where he had failed. Her strategy of preparing fuel stocks, appointing a union-busting NCB leader in Ian MacGregor, and ensuring police were adequately trained and equipped with riot gear, contributed to her victory.117 The number of stoppages across the UK peaked at 4583 in 1979, when more than 29 million working days were lost. In 1984, the year of the miners' strike, there were 1221, resulting in the loss of more than 27 million working days. Stoppages then fell steadily throughout the rest of Thatcher's premiership; in 1990 there were 630 and fewer than 2 million working days lost, and they continued to fall thereafter.118 Trade union membership also fell, from 13.5 million in 1979 to fewer than 10 million by the time Thatcher left office in 1990.119 Privatisation Thatcher on a visit to the University of Salford, 1982 The policy of privatisation has been called "a crucial ingredient of Thatcherism".120 After the 1983 election the sale of state utilities accelerated;121 more than £29 billion was raised from the sale of nationalised industries, and another £18 billion from the sale of council houses.122 The process of privatisation, especially the preparation of nationalised industries for privatisation, was associated with marked improvements in performance, particularly in terms of labour productivity.123 Some of the privatised industries, including gas, water, and electricity, were natural monopolies for which privatisation involved little increase in competition. The privatised industries that demonstrated improvement often did so while still under state ownership. British Steel, for instance, made great gains in profitability while still a nationalised industry under the government-appointed chairmanship of Ian MacGregor, who faced down trade-union opposition to close plants and reduce the workforce by half.124 Regulation was also significantly expanded to compensate for the loss of direct government control, with the foundation of regulatory bodies like Ofgas, Oftel and the National Rivers Authority.125 There was no clear pattern to the degree of competition, regulation, and performance among the privatised industries;123 in most cases privatisation benefitted consumers in terms of lower prices and improved efficiency, but the results overall were "mixed".126 Thatcher always resisted rail privatisation and was said to have told Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley "Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Please never mention the railways to me again." Shortly before her resignation, she accepted the arguments for privatising British Rail, which her successor John Major implemented in 1994.127 The Economist later considered the move to have been "a disaster".126 The privatisation of public assets was combined with financial deregulation in an attempt to fuel economic growth. Geoffrey Howe abolished Britain's exchange controls in 1979, allowing more capital to be invested in foreign markets, and the Big Bang of 1986 removed many restrictions on the London Stock Exchange. The Thatcher government encouraged growth in the finance and service sectors to compensate for Britain's ailing manufacturing industry. Northern Ireland In 1980 and 1981, Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison carried out hunger strikes in an effort to regain the status of political prisoners that had been removed in 1976 by the preceding Labour government.128 Bobby Sands began the 1981 strike, saying that he would fast until death unless prison inmates won concessions over their living conditions.128 Thatcher refused to countenance a return to political status for the prisoners, declaring "Crime is crime is crime; it is not political",128 but nevertheless the UK government privately contacted republican leaders in a bid to bring the hunger strikes to an end.129 After the deaths of Sands and nine others, some rights were restored to paramilitary prisoners, but not official recognition of their political status.130 Violence in Northern Ireland escalated significantly during the hunger strikes; in 1982 Sinn Féin politician Danny Morrison described Thatcher as "the biggest bastard we have ever known".131 Thatcher narrowly escaped injury in an IRA assassination attempt at a Brighton hotel early in the morning on 12 October 1984.132 Five people were killed, including the wife of Cabinet Minister John Wakeham. Thatcher was staying at the hotel to attend the Conservative Party Conference, which she insisted should open as scheduled the following day.132 She delivered her speech as planned,133 a move that was widely supported across the political spectrum and enhanced her popularity with the public.134 On 6 November 1981 Thatcher and Irish Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald had established the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Council, a forum for meetings between the two governments.130 On 15 November 1985, Thatcher and FitzGerald signed the Hillsborough Anglo-Irish Agreement, the first time a British government had given the Republic of Ireland an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland. In protest the Ulster Says No movement attracted 100,000 to a rally in Belfast,135 Ian Gow resigned as Minister of State in the HM Treasury,136137 and all fifteen Unionist MPs resigned their parliamentary seats; only one was not returned in the subsequent by-elections on 23 January 1986.138 Foreign affairs The Thatchers with the Reagans standing at the North Portico of the White House before a state dinner, 16 November 1988 Thatcher took office during the Cold War and became closely aligned with the policies of United States President Ronald Reagan, based on their shared distrust of Communism,101 although she strongly opposed Reagan's October 1983 invasion of Grenada.139 Reagan had assured Thatcher that an invasion was not contemplated, and thereafter Thatcher felt she could never fully trust Reagan again.140 During her first year as Prime Minister she supported NATO's decision to deploy US nuclear cruise and Pershing missiles in Western Europe101 and permitted the US to station more than 160 cruise missiles at RAF Greenham Common, starting on 14 November 1983 and triggering mass protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.101 She bought the Trident nuclear missile submarine system from the US to replace Polaris, tripling the UK's nuclear forces141 at an eventual cost of more than £12 billion (at 1996–97 prices).142 Thatcher's preference for defence ties with the US was demonstrated in the Westland affair of January 1986, when she acted with colleagues to allow the struggling helicopter manufacturer Westland to refuse a takeover offer from the Italian firm Agusta in favour of the management's preferred option, a link with Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation. The UK Defence Secretary, Michael Heseltine, who had supported the Agusta deal, resigned in protest.143 On 2 April 1982 the ruling military junta in Argentina ordered the invasion of the British-controlled Falkland Islands and South Georgia, triggering the Falklands War.144 The subsequent crisis was "a defining moment of her Thatcher's premiership".145 At the suggestion of Harold Macmillan and Robert Armstrong,145 she set up and chaired a small War Cabinet (formally called ODSA, Overseas and Defence committee, South Atlantic) to take charge of the conduct of the war,146 which by 5–6 April had authorised and dispatched a naval task force to retake the islands.147 Argentina surrendered on 14 June and the operation was hailed a success, notwithstanding the deaths of 255 British servicemen and 3 Falkland Islanders. Argentinian deaths totalled 649, half of them after the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror torpedoed and sank the cruiser ARA General Belgrano on 2 May.148 Thatcher was criticised for the neglect of the Falklands' defence that led to the war, and notably by Tam Dalyell in parliament for the decision to sink the General Belgrano, but overall she was considered a highly capable and committed war leader.149 The "Falklands factor", an economic recovery beginning early in 1982, and a bitterly divided opposition contributed to Thatcher's second election victory in 1983.150source? Thatcher often referred after the war to the "Falklands Spirit"; Hastings and Jenkins (1983) suggested that this reflected her preference for the streamlined decision-making of her War Cabinet over the painstaking deal-making of peace-time cabinet government.151 In September 1982 she visited China to discuss with Deng Xiaoping the sovereignty of Hong Kong after 1997. China was the first communist state Thatcher had visited and she was the first British prime minister to visit China. Throughout their meeting, she sought the PRC's agreement to a continued British presence in the territory. Deng stated clearly the PRC's sovereignty on Hong Kong was non-negotiable, but he was willing to settle the sovereignty issue with Britain through formal negotiations, and both governments promised to maintain Hong Kong's stability and prosperity.152 After the two-year negotiations, Thatcher made concession to the PRC government and signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration in Beijing in December 1984, handing over Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997. Although saying that she was in favour of "peaceful negotiations" to end apartheid,153 Thatcher stood against the sanctions imposed on South Africa by the Commonwealth and the EC.154 She attempted to preserve trade with South Africa while persuading the regime there to abandon apartheid. This included "casting herself as President Botha's candid friend", and inviting him to visit the UK in June 1984, in spite of the "inevitable demonstrations" against his regime.155 Thatcher, on the other hand, dismissed the African National Congress (ANC) in October 1987 as "a typical terrorist organisation".156157 The Thatcher government supported the Khmer Rouge keeping their seat in the UN after they were ousted from power in Cambodia by the Cambodian–Vietnamese War. Although denying it at the time they also sent the SAS to train the non-Communist members of the CGDK to fight against the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea government.158159 Thatcher's antipathy towards European integration became more pronounced during her premiership, particularly after her third election victory in 1987. During a 1988 speech in Bruges she outlined her opposition to proposals from the European Community (EC), forerunner of the European Union, for a federal structure and increased centralisation of decision making.160 Thatcher and her party had supported British membership of the EC in the 1975 national referendum,161 but she believed that the role of the organisation should be limited to ensuring free trade and effective competition, and feared that the EC's approach was at odds with her views on smaller government and deregulation;162 in 1988, she remarked, "We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level, with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels".162 Thatcher was firmly opposed to the UK's membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, a precursor to European monetary union, believing that it would constrain the British economy,163 despite the urging of her Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson and Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe,164 but she was persuaded by John Major to join in October 1990, at what proved to be too high a rate.165 Thatcher with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, at the Soviet Embassy in London, 1 April 1989 In April 1986, Thatcher permitted US F-111s to use Royal Air Force bases for the bombing of Libya in retaliation for the alleged Libyan bombing of a Berlin discothèque,166 citing the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter.1673 Polls suggested that fewer than one in three British citizens approved of Thatcher's decision.169 She was in the US on a state visit when Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded neighbouring Kuwait in August 1990.170 During her talks with US President George H. W. Bush, who had succeeded Reagan in 1989, she recommended intervention,170 and put pressure on Bush to deploy troops in the Middle East to drive the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait.171 Bush was somewhat apprehensive about the plan, prompting Thatcher to remark to him during a telephone conversation that "This was no time to go wobbly!"172 Thatcher's government provided military forces to the international coalition in the build-up to the Gulf War, but she had resigned by the time hostilities began on 17 January 1991. Thatcher was one of the first Western leaders to respond warmly to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Following Reagan–Gorbachev summit meetings and reforms enacted by Gorbachev in the USSR, she declared in November 1988 that "We're not in a Cold War now", but rather in a "new relationship much wider than the Cold War ever was".173 She went on a state visit to the Soviet Union in 1984 and met with Gorbachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers.174 Thatcher was initially opposed to German reunification, telling Gorbachev that it "would lead to a change to postwar borders, and we cannot allow that because such a development would undermine the stability of the whole international situation and could endanger our security". She expressed concern that a united Germany would align itself more closely with the Soviet Union and move away from NATO.175 In contrast she was an advocate of Croatian and Slovenian independence.176 In a 1991 interview for Croatian Radiotelevision, Thatcher commented on the Yugoslav Wars; she was critical of Western governments for not recognising the breakaway republics of Croatia and Slovenia as independent states and supplying them with arms after the Serbian-led Yugoslav Army attacked.177 Challenges to leadership and resignation See also: Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 1990 Thatcher was challenged for the leadership of the Conservative Party by the little-known backbench MP Sir Anthony Meyer in the 1989 leadership election.178 Of the 374 Conservative MPs eligible to vote, 314 voted for Thatcher and 33 for Meyer.178 Her supporters in the party viewed the result as a success, and rejected suggestions that there was discontent within the party.178 During her premiership Thatcher had the second-lowest average approval rating, at 40 percent, of any post-war Prime Minister. Polls consistently showed that she was less popular than her party.179 A self-described conviction politician, Thatcher always insisted that she did not care about her poll ratings, pointing instead to her unbeaten election record.180 Thatcher in 1990 Opinion polls in September 1990 reported that Labour had established a 14% lead over the Conservatives,181 and by November the Conservatives had been trailing Labour for 18 months.179 These ratings, together with Thatcher's combative personality and willingness to override colleagues' opinions, contributed to discontent within the Conservative party.182 On 1 November 1990 Geoffrey Howe, the last remaining member of Thatcher's original 1979 cabinet, resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister over her refusal to agree to a timetable for Britain to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.181183 In his resignation speech on 13 November, Howe commented on Thatcher's European stance: "It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find the moment that the first balls are bowled that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain."184 His resignation was fatal to Thatcher's premiership.185 The next day, Michael Heseltine mounted a challenge for the leadership of the Conservative Party.186 Opinion polls had indicated that he would give the Conservatives a national lead over Labour.187 Although Thatcher won the first ballot, Heseltine attracted sufficient support (152 votes) to force a second ballot. Under party rules, Thatcher not only needed to win a majority, but her margin over Heseltine had to be equivalent to 15 percent of the 372 Conservative MPs in order to win the leadership election outright; she came up four votes short.188 Thatcher initially stated that she intended to "fight on and fight to win" the second ballot, but consultation with her Cabinet persuaded her to withdraw.182189 After seeing the Queen, calling other world leaders, and making one final Commons speech190, she left Downing Street in tears. She regarded her ousting as a betrayal.191 Thatcher was replaced as Prime Minister and party leader by her Chancellor John Major, who oversaw an upturn in Conservative support in the 17 months leading up to the 1992 general election and led the Conservatives to their fourth successive victory on 9 April 1992.192 Thatcher favoured Major over Heseltine in the leadership contest, but her support for him weakened in later years.193 Later life (1990–2013) Thatcher returned to the backbenches as MP for Finchley for two years after leaving the premiership.194 She retired from the House at the 1992 election, aged 66, saying that leaving the Commons would allow her more freedom to speak her mind.195 Post-Commons After leaving the House of Commons, Thatcher became the first former Prime Minister to set up a foundation; it closed down in 2005 because of financial difficulties.196 She wrote two volumes of memoirs, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). In 1991, she and her husband Dennis moved to a house in Chester Square, a residential garden square located in central London's Belgravia district.197 In July 1992, Thatcher was hired by the tobacco company Philip Morris as a "geopolitical consultant" for $250,000 per year and an annual contribution of $250,000 to her foundation.198 She also earned $50,000 for each speech she delivered.199 In August 1992, Thatcher called for NATO to stop the Serbian assault on Goražde and Sarajevo to end ethnic cleansing during the Bosnian War. She compared the situation in Bosnia to "the worst excesses of the Nazis", and warned that there could be a "holocaust".200 She made a series of speeches in the Lords criticising the Maastricht Treaty,195 describing it as "a treaty too far" and stated "I could never have signed this treaty".201 She cited A. V. Dicey when stating that as all three main parties were in favour of revisiting the treaty, the people should have their say.202 Thatcher with Yasuhiro Nakasone (far left), Mikhail Gorbachev (left) and Brian Mulroney (centre) at Reagan's funeral. Thatcher was honorary Chancellor of the College of William and Mary in Virginia (1993–2000)203 and also of the University of Buckingham (1992–1999), the UK's first private university, which she had opened in 1975.204 After Tony Blair's election as Labour Party leader in 1994, Thatcher praised Blair in an interview as "probably the most formidable Labour leader since Hugh Gaitskell. I see a lot of socialism behind their front bench, but not in Mr Blair. I think he genuinely has moved".205 In 1998, Thatcher called for the release of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet when Spain had him arrested and sought to try him for human rights violations, citing the help he gave Britain during the Falklands War.206 In 1999, she visited him while he was under house arrest near London.207 Pinochet was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw, without facing trial.208 In the 2001 general election, Thatcher supported the Conservative general election campaign, as she had done in 1992 and 1997, and in the Conservative leadership election shortly after, she supported Iain Duncan Smith over Kenneth Clarke.209 In March 2002, Thatcher's book Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World, dedicated to Ronald Reagan, was released. In it, she claimed there would be no peace in the Middle East until Saddam Hussein was toppled, that Israel must trade land for peace, and that the European Union (EU) was "fundamentally unreformable", "a classic utopian project, a monument to the vanity of intellectuals, a programme whose inevitable destiny is failure". She argued that Britain should renegotiate its terms of membership or else leave the EU and join the North American Free Trade Area. The book was serialised in The Times on 18 March. Thatcher suffered several small strokes in 2002 and was advised by her doctors not to engage in further public speaking.210 On 23 March, she announced that on the advice of her doctors she would cancel all planned speaking engagements and accept no more.211 Husband's death Sir Denis Thatcher died of heart failure on 26 June 2003 and was cremated on 3 July.212 She had paid tribute to him in The Downing Street Years, writing "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: you cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend."213 Final years On 11 June 2004, Thatcher attended the state funeral service for Ronald Reagan.214 She delivered her eulogy via videotape; in view of her health, the message had been pre-recorded several months earlier.215 Thatcher flew to California with the Reagan entourage, and attended the memorial service and interment ceremony for the president at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.216 Thatcher attends a Washington memorial service marking the 5th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, pictured with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park, London, on 13 October 2005; guests included the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Alexandra and Tony Blair.217 Geoffrey Howe, by then Lord Howe of Aberavon, was also present, and said of his former leader: "Her real triumph was to have transformed not just one party but two, so that when Labour did eventually return, the great bulk of Thatcherism was accepted as irreversible."218 According to a later article in The Daily Telegraph, Thatcher's daughter Carol first revealed that her mother had dementia in 2005, saying that "Mum doesn't read much any more because of her memory loss .. It's pointless. She can't remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she reaches the end."219 She later recounted how she was first struck by her mother's dementia when she muddled the Falklands conflict with the Yugoslav wars; she has also recalled the pain of needing to tell her mother repeatedly that Denis Thatcher was dead.220 In 2006, Thatcher attended the official Washington, D.C. memorial service to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States. She was a guest of Vice President Dick Cheney, and met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her visit.221 In February 2007, Thatcher became the first living British Prime Minister to be honoured with a statue in the Houses of Parliament. The bronze statue stands opposite that of her political hero, Sir Winston Churchill,222 and was unveiled on 21 February 2007 with Thatcher in attendance; she made a rare and brief speech in the members' lobby of the House of Commons, responding: "I might have preferred iron – but bronze will do ... It won't rust."222 The statue shows her addressing the House of Commons, with her right arm outstretched.223 She was a public supporter of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism and the resulting Prague Process, and sent a public letter of support to its preceding conference.224 After collapsing at a House of Lords dinner, Thatcher was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital in central London on 7 March 2008 for tests. Thatcher returned to 10 Downing Street in late November 2009 for the unveiling of an official portrait by artist Richard Stone,225 an unusual honour for a living ex-Prime Minister. Stone had previously painted portraits of the Queen and the Queen Mother.225 On 4 July 2011, Thatcher was to attend a ceremony for the unveiling of a 10-foot statue to former American President Ronald Reagan, outside the American Embassy in London, but was unable to attend because of frail health.226 On 31 July 2011, it was announced that her office in the House of Lords had been closed.227 Earlier that month, Thatcher had been named the most competent British Prime Minister of the past 30 years in an Ipsos MORI poll.228 On 21 December 2012, she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder.229 Death Wikinews has related news: Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies aged 87 Main article: Death and funeral of Margaret Thatcher Following several years of poor health, Thatcher died on the morning of 8 April 2013 at The Ritz Hotel in London after suffering a stroke.230231232 She had been staying at a suite in The Ritz Hotel since December 2012 after having difficulty with stairs at her Chester Square home.233 Lord Bell, Thatcher's spokesman, confirmed her death in a press release issued at 12:52 BST (11:52 UTC).230 Details of Lady Thatcher's funeral had been agreed with her in advance.234 In line with her wishes she will receive a ceremonial funeral including military honours, with a church service at St Paul's Cathedral.230 It will be held on 17 April.235 Legacy Political legacy Part of the politics series on Thatcherism Philosophyshow Peopleshow Organisationsshow Related movementsshow Politics Portal v t e Thatcher defined her own political philosophy, in a major and controversial break with One Nation Conservatives like her predecessor Edward Heath,236 in her statement to Douglas Keay, published in Woman's Own magazine in September 1987: I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand "I have a problem, it is the Government's job to cope with it!" or "I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!" "I am homeless, the Government must house me!" and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.237 The percentage of adults owning shares rose from 7% to 25% during her tenure, and more than a million families bought their council houses, giving an increase from 55 per cent to 67 per cent in owner-occupiers from 1979 to 1990. The houses were sold at a discount of 33-55 per cent, leading to large profits for some new owners. Marr suggests that in consequence personal wealth rose by 80 per cent in real terms during the 1980s, mainly due to rising house prices and increased earnings. Shares in the privatised utilities were sold below their market value to ensure quick and wide sales, rather than maximise national income.238 Thatcher's premiership was also marked by high unemployment and social unrest,239 and many critics on the Left of the political spectrum fault her economic policies for the unemployment level; many of the areas affected by high unemployment as well as her monetarist economic policies have still not fully recovered and are blighted by social problems such as drug abuse and family breakdown.240 Speaking in Scotland in April 2009, before the 30th anniversary of her election as Prime Minister, Thatcher insisted she had no regrets and was right to introduce the poll tax, and to withdraw subsidies from "outdated industries, whose markets were in terminal decline", subsidies that created "the culture of dependency, which had done such damage to Britain".241 Political economist Susan Strange called the new financial growth model "casino capitalism", reflecting her view that speculation and financial trading were becoming more important to the economy than industry.242 She has been criticised as being divisive243 and for promoting greed and selfishness.239 Many recent biographers have been critical of aspects of the Thatcher years and Michael White, writing in the New Statesman in February 2009, challenged the view that her reforms had brought a net benefit.244 Despite being Britain's first woman Prime Minister, some critics contend Thatcher did "little to advance the political cause of women",245 either within her party or the government, and some British feminists regarded her as "an enemy".246 Her stance on immigration was perceived by some as part of a rising racist public discourse, which Professor Martin Barker has called "new racism".247 Influenced at the outset by Keith Joseph,248 the term "Thatcherism" came to refer to her policies as well as aspects of her ethical outlook and personal style, including moral absolutism, nationalism, interest in the individual, and an uncompromising approach to achieving political goals.4 The nickname "Iron Lady", originally given to her by the Soviets, became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.249250251 Thatcher's tenure of 11 years and 209 days as Prime Minister was the longest since Lord Salisbury (13 years and 252 days in three spells starting in 1885), and the longest continuous period in office since Lord Liverpool (14 years and 305 days starting in 1812).188252 She was voted the fourth-greatest British Prime Minister of the 20th century in a poll of 139 academics organised by MORI,253 and in 2002 was ranked number 16 in the BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.254 In 1999, TIME named Thatcher one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.255 Thatcher's death prompted mixed reactions, including reflections of criticism as well as praise.256257258 Groups of detractors celebrated her death in Brixton, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow.259260261 In addition, an online campaign helped the song "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead" chart at number 10 in the Official Midweek Charts.262 Shortly after Thatcher's death, Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond argued that her policies had the "unintended consequence" of encouraging Scottish devolution, stating, "I think a lot of people in Scotland, looking at the poll tax, thought to themselves, well, the Scottish Parliament instead of just being a nice idea was something that was absolutely essential to prevent such a policy being imposed from on high again."263 Lord Foulkes agreed on Scotland Tonight that she had provided "the impetus" for devolution.264 Honours US President George H. W. Bush awards Thatcher the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1991 Thatcher became a Privy Councillor (PC) upon becoming Secretary of State for Education and Science in 1970.265 She was appointed a Member of the Order of Merit (OM) (an order within the personal gift of the Queen) within two weeks of leaving office. Denis Thatcher was made a Baronet at the same time.266 She became a peer in the House of Lords in 1992 with a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher, of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire.195267 She was appointed a Lady Companion of the Order of the Garter, the UK's highest order of chivalry, in 1995.268 She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1983, which caused controversy among the existing Fellows.22 She was the first woman entitled to full membership rights as an honorary member of the Carlton Club on becoming leader of the Conservative Party in 1975.269 In the Falklands, Margaret Thatcher Day has been marked every 10 January since 1992,270 commemorating her visit in 1983.271 Thatcher Drive in Stanley is named for her, as is Thatcher Peninsula in South Georgia, where the task force troops first set foot on the Falklands.270 Thatcher was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour awarded by the US.272 She was a patron of The Heritage Foundation,273 which established the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom in 2005.274 Speaking of Heritage president Ed Feulner, at the first Clare Booth Luce lecture in September 1993, Thatcher said: "You didn't just advise President Reagan on what he should do; you told him how he could do it. And as a practising politician I can testify that that is the only advice worth having."275 Cultural depictions Main article: Cultural depictions of Margaret Thatcher Thatcher was the subject or the inspiration for 1980s protest songs. Billy Bragg and Paul Weller helped to form the Red Wedge collective to support Labour in opposition to Thatcher.276 Thatcher was lampooned by satirist John Wells in several media. Wells collaborated with Richard Ingrams on the spoof "Dear Bill" letters which ran as a column in Private Eye magazine, were published in book form, and were then adapted into a West End stage revue as Anyone for Denis?, starring Wells as Denis Thatcher. The stage show was followed by a 1982 TV special directed by Dick Clement.277 Spitting Image, a British TV show, satirised Thatcher as a bully who ridiculed her own ministers.278 She was voiced by Steve Nallon.279 Scottish actress Janet Brown regularly impersonated Thatcher on television and in films, including the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Margaret Thatcher has been depicted in many television programmes, documentaries, films and plays. She was played by Patricia Hodge in Ian Curteis's long unproduced The Falklands Play (2002) and by Andrea Riseborough in the TV film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She is the titular character in two films, portrayed by Lindsay Duncan in Margaret (2009) and by Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady (2011),280 in which she is depicted as having Alzheimer's disease.281 Styles and titles Miss Margaret Roberts (1925–1951) Mrs Margaret Thatcher (1951–1959) Mrs Margaret Thatcher, MP (1959–1970) The Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher, MP (1970–1983) The Rt Hon. Margaret Thatcher, MP, FRS (1983–1990) The Rt Hon. Lady Thatcher, OM, MP, FRS (1990–1992) The Rt Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, OM, PC, FRS (1992–1995) The Rt Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (1995–2013) Arms Arms of Margaret Thatcher Notes Margaret Thatcher was granted her own coat of arms by the College of Arms following her elevation to the peerage in 1992. Adopted 1992 Coronet Coronet of a baron Escutcheon On a lozenge per chevron azure and gules, a double key in chief between two lions combatant a tower with portcullis in base all or. Supporters Dexter, an admiral of the British Navy; sinister, Sir Isaac Newton holding in his left hand weighing scales, both proper. Motto CHERISH FREEDOM Orders Order of the Garter ribbon. HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE (French for Shame be to him who thinks evil of it) Order of Merit ribbon with Cross pendant. Symbolism The dexter supporter is an Admiral of the Royal Navy, to commemorate the victory of the Falklands War during her premiership. The sinister supporter is Sir Isaac Newton, to recognise her earlier career as a scientist. The key and the two royal lions of England represents her tenure as Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury. The tower and portcullis represents her time at the Palace of Westminster as Member of Parliament. She bears this achievement on a lozenge (as is traditional for a woman), surrounded by the circlet of the Order of the Garter (in which she was appointed in 1995), below hangs the ribbon and insignia of the Order of Merit (in which she was appointed in 1990).282 References Notes ^ In her foreword to the 1979 Conservative manifesto, Thatcher wrote of "a feeling of helplessness, that a once great nation has somehow fallen behind".1 ^ "The hang-up has always been the voice. Not the timbre so much as, well, the tone—the condescending explanatory whine which treats the squirming interlocutor as an eight-year-old child with personality deficiencies. It has been fascinating, recently, to watch her striving to eliminate this. BBC2 News Extra on Tuesday night rolled a clip from May 1973 demonstrating the Thatcher sneer at full pitch. (She was saying that she wouldn't dream of seeking the leadership.) She sounded like a cat sliding down a blackboard." James, Clive (9 February 1975). The Observer (London). Anthologised in James 1977, pp. 119–120. ^ Speaking to the House of Commons, Thatcher stated that "the United States has more than 330,000 members of her forces in Europe to defend our liberty. Because they are here, they are subject to terrorist attack. It is inconceivable that they should be refused the right to use American aircraft and American pilots in the inherent right of self-defence, to defend their own people."168 ^ Nigel Lawson listed the Thatcherite ideals as: "Free markets, financial discipline, firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, 'Victorian values' (of the Samuel Smiles self-help variety), privatisation and a dash of populism." Lawson 1992, p. 64 Footnotes ^ Thatcher, Margaret (1979). "Conservative Party Manifesto 1979". Foreword. conservativemanifesto.com. Retrieved 28 July 2009. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 1. ^ a b Beckett 2006, p. 3 ^ a b Beckett 2006, p. 8 ^ Johnson, Maureen (28 May 1988). "Bible-Quoting Thatcher Stirs Furious Debate". Associated Press. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 5 ^ Beckett 2006, p. 6 ^ Blundell 2008, pp. 21–22. ^ "School aims". Kesteven & Grantham Girls' School. Retrieved 9 April 2013. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 12. ^ Blundell 2008, p. 23 ^ Blundell 2008, pp. 25–27. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 16. ^ Beckett 2006, pp. 20–21. ^ Blundell 2008, p. 28. ^ Blundell 2008, p. 30. ^ Reitan 2003, p. 17. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 17 ^ "In quotes: Margaret Thatcher", BBC, 8 April 2013. ^ a b c d Beckett 2006, p. 22 ^ a b Blundell 2008, p. 36 ^ a b "Cream of the crop at Royal Society". New Scientist (London) 99 (1365): 5. 7 July 1983. Retrieved 25 January 2011. ^ a b c Beckett 2006, pp. 23–24 ^ Blundell 2008, p. 37 ^ "Sir Denis Thatcher, Bt". The Daily Telegraph (London). 27 June 2003. Retrieved 6 January 2012. ^ Beckett 2006, p. 25 ^ Blundell 2008, p. 35 ^ a b Beckett 2006, p. 26 ^ Beckett 2006, p. 27 See also: The London Gazette: no. 41842. p. 6433. 13 October 1959. Retrieved 28 February 2008. ^ "HC S 2R Bodies (Admission of the Press to Meetings) Bill (Maiden Speech)". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. 5 February 1960. ^ Campbell 2000, p. 134 ^ a b Johnson, Charles C. (28 December 2011). "Thatcher and the Jews". Tablet Magazine (New York). Retrieved 21 March 2012. ^ Reitan 2003, p. 4 ^ a b c d Wapshott 2007, p. 64 ^ "Sexual Offences (No. 2)". Hansard 731: 267. 5 July 1966. ^ Thatcher 1995, p. 150. ^ "Medical Termination of Pregnancy Bill". Hansard 732: 1165. 22 July 1966. ^ "Hare Coursing Bill". Hansard 801: 1599–1603. 14 May 1970. ^ "Capital Punishment". Hansard 785: 1235. 24 June 1969. ^ "Divorce Reform Bill". Hansard 758: 904–907. 9 February 1968. ^ Thatcher 1995, p. 151. ^ Scott-Smith, Giles (Winter 2003). ""Her Rather Ambitious Washington Program": Margaret Thatcher's International Visitor Program Visit to the United States in 1967". Contemporary British History (Routledge – Taylor and Francis) 17 (4): 65–86. ISSN 1743–7997. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. ^ Thatcher, Margaret (1995). The Path to Power. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-204789-2. ^ Wapshott 2007, p. 65 ^ a b Reitan 2003, p. 14 ^ a b c Wapshott 2007, p. 76 ^ Hickman, Martin (9 August 2010). "Tories move swiftly to avoid 'milk-snatcher' tag". The Independent (London). Retrieved 9 April 2013. ^ a b c Reitan 2003, p. 15 ^ Smith, Rebecca (8 August 2010). "How Margaret Thatcher became known as 'Milk Snatcher'". The Sunday Telegraph (London). Retrieved 9 April 2013. ^ Thatcher 1995, p. 182 ^ Marr 2007, pp. 248–249 ^ a b Reitan 2003, p. 16 ^ Naughton, Philippe (18 July 2005). "Thatcher leads tributes to Sir Edward Heath". The Times (London). Retrieved 14 October 2008. ^ "Press Conference after winning Conservative leadership (Grand Committee Room)". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 29 September 2007. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (25 July 1988). "For British Tories, a Private Feud Goes Public". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 October 2008. ^ Beckett 2010, chapter 11 ^ Thatcher 1995, p. 267 ^ Moore, Charles (December 2011). "The Invincible Mrs. Thatcher". Vanity Fair (New York). ^ Johnson, Frank (22 April 1983). "A miracle recovery for Finchley mother of two". The Times (London). p. 28. ^ "PM taunts Labour over early election". The Guardian (London). 20 April 1983. p. 5. "Amid uproar from both sides of the house, Mrs Thatcher shouted: 'So you are afraid of an election are you? Afraid, Afraid, Afraid. Frightened, frit – couldn't take it. Couldn't stand it.'" ^ a b "Britain Awake". Margaret Thatcher Foundation. Retrieved 2 November 2008. ^ "7 September 1978: Callaghan accused of running scared". On this day 1950–2005 (BBC). 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2012. ^ "Margaret Thatcher Arrives at 10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister, May 4, 1979". YouTube. ^ "Votes go to Tories, and nobody else". The Economist 263 (6976) (London). 14 May 1977. pp. 24–28. ^ Conservative Party Campaign Guide Supplement 1978. Published by the Conservative and Unionist Central Office. ^ "Mrs Thatcher fears people might become hostile if immigrant flow is not cut". The Times. 31 January 1978. ^ "Britain: Facing a Multiracial Future". Time (New York). 27 August 1979. Retrieved 20 January 2011. ^ Reitan 2003, p. 26 ^ Ward, Paul (2004). Britishness since 1870. Routledge. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-415-22016-3. Retrieved 21 August 2011. ^ Swaine, Jon (30 December 2009). "Margaret Thatcher complained about Asian immigration to Britain". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 20 January 2011. ^ Reitan 2003, p. 28. ^ Seward 2001, p. 154. ^ Freeman, Simon; Jones, Michael (20 July 1986). "Queen dismayed by 'uncaring' Thatcher". The Sunday Times (London). ^ a b Jones, Michael (27 July 1986). "The Queen And Thatcher: The story they couldn't kill; Alleged rift between Premier and British Monarch". The Sunday Times (London). ^ "Queen to toast Thatcher". The Times (London). 16 October 1995. p. 2. ^ Thatcher 1993, p. 18. ^ "Hillsborough papers: Thatcher's concern about police criticism by Taylor". BBC News. 12 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012. ^ Holt, Gerry; Williams, Nathan (30 December 2011). "Files reveal Margaret Thatcher's frugal side". BBC News. Retrieved 30 December 2011. ^ a b Childs 2006, p. 185 ^ a b Reitan 2003, p. 30 ^ "29 January 1985: Thatcher snubbed by Oxford dons". On this day 1950–2005 (BBC). Retrieved 9 April 2007. ^ Marr 2007, p. 464. ^ Lawson 1992, p. 301 ^ Middleton, Roger (2006). "The Political Economy of Decline". Journal of Contemporary History 41 (3): 580. doi:10.1177/0022009406064671. ^ a b "10 October 1980: Thatcher 'not for turning'". On this day 1950–2005. BBC News. Retrieved 21 December 2008. ^ Jones, Kavanagh & Moran 2007, p. 224. ^ Thornton 2006, p. 18 ^ Reitan 2003, p. 31 ^ "An avalanche of economists". The Times. 31 March 1981. p. 17. Retrieved 12 January 2011. (subscription required) ^ Floud & Johnson 2004, p. 392. ^ "26 January 1982: UK unemployment tops three million". On this day 1950–2005. BBC News. 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2010. ^ "Consumer Price Inflation: 1947 to 2004". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 6 August 2012. ^ O'Grady, Sean (16 March 2009). "Unemployment among young workers hits 15 per cent". The Independent (London). Retrieved 21 November 2010. ^ "BBC Politics 97". BBC. 11 June 1987. Retrieved 14 November 2011. ^ Marr 2007, p. 439. ^ a b Passell, Peter (23 April 1990). "Furor Over British Poll Tax Imperils Thatcher Ideology". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2008. ^ Reitan 2003, pp. 87–88 ^ Graham, David (25 March 2010). "The Battle of Trafalgar Square: The poll tax riots revisited". The Independent (London). Retrieved 8 April 2013. ^ a b "31 March 1990: Violence flares in poll tax demonstration". On this day 1950–2005. BBC News. 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ISBN 978-0-571-22137-0. Burns, William E. (2009). A Brief History of Great Britain. Facts on File. ISBN 978-0-8160-7728-1. Beckett, Clare (2006). Margaret Thatcher. Haus Publishing. ISBN 978-1-904950-71-4. Blundell, John (2008). Margaret Thatcher: a portrait of the Iron Lady. Algora. ISBN 978-0-87586-630-7. Butler, David; Butler, Gareth (1994). British Political Facts 1900–1994 (7 ed.). Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-52616-3. Childs, David (2006). Britain since 1945: a political history (6 ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-39326-3. Chin, Rita C-K (2009). After the Nazi racial state: difference and democracy in Germany and Europe. ISBN 978-0-472-11686-7. Cochrane, Feargal (2001). Unionist Politics and the Politics of Unionism Since the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Cork University Press. ISBN 1-85918-259-3. English, Richard (2005). Armed Struggle: The History of the IRA. OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-517753-4. Evans, Eric (2004). Thatcher and Thatcherism (The Making of the Contemporary World) (2 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-27013-7. Erickson, Carolly (2005). Lilibet: An Intimate Portrait of Elizabeth II. Macmillan. ISBN 0-312-33938-0. Feigenbaum, Harvey; Henig, Jeffrey; Hamnett, Chris (1998). Shrinking the State: The Political Underpinnings of Privatization. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-63918-7. Floud, Roderick; Johnson, Paul (2004). The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Volume 3. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52738-5. Foley, Michael (2002). John Major, Tony Blair and a Conflict of Leadership: Collision Course. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-6317-5. Gamble, Andrew (2009). The Spectre at the Feast: Capitalist Crisis and the Politics of Recession. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-23075-0. Gilbert, Martin (2002). A History of the Twentieth Century. Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-050594-X. Glyn, Andrew (1992). "The 'Productivity Miracle', Profits and Investment'". In Michie, Jonathan. The Economic Legacy, 1979–1992. Academic Press. pp. 77–87. ISBN 978-0-12-494060-4. Görtemaker, Manfred (2006). Britain and Germany in the Twentieth Century. Berg Publishers. ISBN 1-85973-842-7. Hastings, Max; Jenkins, Simon (1983). Battle for the Falklands. Norton. ISBN 0-393-30198-2. Howe, Geoffrey (1994). Conflict of Loyalty. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-59283-0. Jackling, Roger (2005). "The Impact of the Falklands Conflict on Defence Policy". In Badsey, Stephen; Grove, Mark; Havers, Rob. The Falklands Conflict Twenty Years On: Lessons for the Future (Sandhurst Conference Series). Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-35030-3. James, Clive (1977). Visions Before Midnight. ISBN 978-0-224-01386-4. Jones, Bill; Kavanagh, Dennis; Moran, Michael (2007). "Media organisations and the political process". Politics UK (6 ed.). Longman. ISBN 978-1-4058-2411-8. Khabaz, D.V. (2007). Manufactured Schema: Thatcher, the Miners and the Culture Industry. Matador. ISBN 978-1-905237-61-6. Kavanagh, Dennis (1997). The Reordering of British Politics: Politics after Thatcher. OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-878201-8. Lacey, Robert (2003). Monarch: The Life and Reign of Elizabeth II. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-3669-6. Lawson, Nigel (1992). The View from No. 11: Memoirs of a Tory Radical. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-593-02218-4. McAleese, Dermott (2004). Economics For Business: Competition, Macro-stability & Globalisation (3 ed.). Financial Times Management. ISBN 978-0-273-68398-8. Marr, Andrew (2007). A History of Modern Britain. Pan. ISBN 978-0-330-43983-1. Moloney, Ed (2002). A Secret History of the IRA. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-32502-4. Reitan, Earl Aaron (2003). The Thatcher Revolution: Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, and the Transformation of Modern Britain, 1979–2001. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-7425-2203-2. Richards, Howard (2004). Understanding the Global Economy. Peace Education Books. ISBN 0-9748961-0-1. Seldon, Anthony; Collings, Daniel (2000). Britain Under Thatcher. Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-31714-7. Senden, Linda (2004). Soft Law in European Community Law. Hart Publishing. ISBN 1-84113-432-5. Seward, Ingrid (2001). The Queen and Di: The Untold Story. Arcade Publishing. ISBN 1-55970-561-2. Smith, Gordon (1989). Battles of the Falklands War. I. Allan. ISBN 978-0-7110-1792-4. Thatcher, Margaret (1993). The Downing Street Years. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-255354-6. Thatcher, Margaret (1995). The Path to Power. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-638753-4. Thornton, Richard C. (2006). The Reagan Revolution II: Rebuilding the Western Alliance. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4120-1356-7. Toye, Richard; Gottlieb, Julie V. (2005). Making Reputations: Power, Persuasion and the Individual in Modern British Politics. I. B. Tauris. ISBN 1-85043-841-2. Veljanovski, Cento (1990). "The Political Economy of Regulation". In Dunleavy, Patrick; Gamble, Andrew; Peele, Gillian. Developments in British Politics 3. Macmillan. Wapshott, Nicholas (2007). Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage. Sentinel. ISBN 1-59523-047-5. Wheeler, Tony (2004). The Falklands and South Georgia Island. Lonely Planet. ISBN 1-74059-643-9. Williams, Andy (1998). UK Government & Politics. Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-435-33158-0. Further reading Biographies Abse, Leo (1989). Margaret, Daughter of Beatrice. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-224-02726-7. Dale, Iain, ed. (2000). Memories of Maggie. Politicos. ISBN 978-1-902301-51-8. Pugh, Peter; Flint, Carl (1997). Thatcher for Beginners. Icon Books. ISBN 978-1-874166-53-5. Young, Hugo (1993). One of Us: Life of Margaret Thatcher (2nd ed.). Pan Books. ISBN 978-0-330-32841-8. Campbell, John (2000). Margaret Thatcher; Volume One: The Grocer's Daughter. Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-7418-7. Campbell, John (2003). Margaret Thatcher; Volume Two: The Iron Lady. Pimlico. ISBN 0-7126-6781-4. Political analysis Butler, David; Adonis, Andrew; Travers, Tony (1994). Failure in British government: the politics of the poll tax. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-827876-4. Jenkins, Peter (1987). Mrs. Thatcher's Revolution: Ending of the Socialist Era. Jonathan Cape. ISBN 978-0-674-58833-2. Jones, Bill (1999). Political Issues in Britain Today. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0-7190-5432-X. Letwin, Shirley Robin (1992). The Anatomy of Thatcherism. Flamingo. ISBN 978-0-00-686243-7. Young, Hugo (1986). The Thatcher Phenomenon. BBC. ISBN 978-0-563-20473-2. Books by Thatcher Thatcher, Margaret; Harris, Robin (1997). In Harris, Robin Harris. The Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-018734-7. Thatcher, Margaret (2002). Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-019973-9. Ministerial autobiographies Heseltine, Michael (2001). Life in the Jungle: My Autobiography. Coronet. ISBN 978-0-340-73916-7. Major, John (1999). The Autobiography. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-653074-9. Parkinson, Cecil (1992). Right at the Centre. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-81262-3. Ridley, Nicholas (1991). 'My Style of Government': The Thatcher Years. Hutchinson. ISBN 978-0-09-175051-0. Tebbit, Norman (1988). Upwardly Mobile. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-0-297-79427-1. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Margaret Thatcher (category) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Margaret Thatcher Wikisource has original works written by or about: Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher Foundation Margaret Thatcher and the Privatization Movement from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher on the Downing Street website. Archival material relating to Margaret Thatcher listed at the UK National Archives Records of the Prime Minister's Office, digitised files from the Prime Minister's Office, covering from the 1979 general election to December 1979. British television appearances Val Meets ... Margaret Thatcher, 7 March 1973 (BBC iPlayer) This is the programme in which she stated there would not be "a woman Prime Minister in my lifetime". Appearances on C-SPAN Booknotes interview with Thatcher on The Downing Street Years, 5 December 1993. Margaret Thatcher at the Internet Movie Database Works by or about Margaret Thatcher in libraries (WorldCat catalog) Margaret Thatcher collected news and commentary at The Guardian Margaret Thatcher collected news and commentary at The New York Times Actresses (and actors) who have portrayed Thatcher, The Telegraph (London), 8 February 2011. Portraits of Margaret Hilda Thatcher (née Roberts), Baroness Thatcher at the National Portrait Gallery, London BBC News — Obituary: Margaret Thatcher Margaret Thatcher at Find a Grave Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded by John Crowder Member of Parliament for Finchley 1959–1992 Succeeded by Hartley Booth Political offices Preceded by Edward Short Secretary of State for Education and Science 1970–1974 Succeeded by Reginald Prentice Preceded by Edward Heath Leader of the Opposition 1975–1979 Succeeded by James Callaghan Preceded by James Callaghan Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1979–1990 Succeeded by John Major First Lord of the Treasury 1979–1990 Minister for the Civil Service 1979–1990 Party political offices Preceded by Edward Heath Leader of the Conservative Party 1975–1990 Succeeded by John Major Diplomatic posts Preceded by Ronald Reagan Chair of the G7 1984 Succeeded by Helmut Kohl Awards Preceded by Bob Hope Recipient of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Award 1998 Succeeded by Billy Graham Academic offices Preceded by François Mitterrand College of Europe Orateur 1988 Succeeded by Jacques Delors show Margaret Thatcher navigational boxes Authority control WorldCat VIAF: 102379347 LCCN: n50000017 GND: 118756680 LIBRIS: 227339 BNF: cb121412696 Categories: Margaret Thatcher1925 births2013 deathsAlumni of Somerville College, OxfordAlumni of the Inns of Court School of LawAttempted assassination survivorsBritish people of the Falklands WarBritish Secretaries of State for EducationCardiovascular disease deaths in EnglandChancellors of the College of William & MaryCold War leadersConservative Party (UK) life peersConservative Party (UK) MPsConverts to AnglicanismCritics of the European UnionDames Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis IDeaths from strokeEnglish AnglicansEnglish anti-communistsEnglish barristersEnglish chemistsFellows of the Royal Society (Statute 12)Female Fellows of the Royal SocietyFemale heads of governmentFemale lawyersFemale life peersFemale members of the Cabinet of the United KingdomFemale members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituenciesFormer MethodistsGrand Crosses of the Order of Good HopeGrand Order of King Dmitar Zvonimir recipientsThe Heritage FoundationHonorary Fellows of Somerville College, OxfordLadies Companion of the GarterLeaders of the Conservative Party (UK)Leaders of the Opposition (United Kingdom)Members of the Order of MeritMembers of the Privy Council of the United KingdomPeople associated with the University of BuckinghamPeople educated at Kesteven and Grantham Girls' SchoolPeople from GranthamPeople with dementiaPresidential Medal of Freedom recipientsPresidents of the European CouncilPrime Ministers of the United KingdomStroke survivorsUK MPs 1959–1964UK MPs 1964–1966UK MPs 1966–1970UK MPs 1970–1974UK MPs 1974UK MPs 1974–1979UK MPs 1979–1983UK MPs 1983–1987UK MPs 1987–1992Women chemistsWomen in 20th-century warfare